Setting fires not a way to protest gentrification

Another fire at another housing project under construction.

I’m not the only one who thinks it just can’t be a coincidence.

The fire that destroyed the Alta Waverly apartment building under construction near the old Auto Row is the fifth suspicious fire at a housing construction site in and near Oakland.

In 2012, an arson fire engulfed a construction site for the Red Star senior housing complex near the West Oakland BART Station. The

security guard on site said that just before the fire, he ran off after three men threatened him. On Oct. 31, an arson fire tore through a three-story apartment complex under construction east of Oakland’s Lake Merritt.

That brings us to the Intersection, a mixed-use project in downtown Emeryville, on the Oakland border, that has burned twice in the past year. Twice. After the second fire, grainy images of a man in a sweatshirt riding a bicycle and wearing a backpack in the middle of the night were released.

The Intersection, which will have 105 residential units and 21,000 square feet of retail space, is set to be built again.

So while authorities search for clues as to what started the latest fire, a lot of people can’t help but wonder whether there’s a connection in all of these fires.

The reality in Oakland is that some people harbor resentment and anger as city leaders celebrate renewal with new developments like Alta Waverly.

Alta Waverly calls for 196 apartments, an underground garage and as much as 31,500 square feet of retail space. It’s one of four projects that make up the Broadway Valdez Specific Plan that, eventually, will have almost 3,000 housing units. Developers envision the complex as a destination, a hub for shopping and living.

But as these buildings rise, fewer and fewer Oakland residents can afford to live in the city they want to call home. And displaced residents who’ve become homeless are definitely not hosting back-slapping, Champagne-popping parties inside their cramped tents on dirty sidewalks while housing developments that don’t have units they can afford are built.

So the resentment is there. The question is whether it’s a motivation for the arson fires.

Some people — including Oakland Councilman Abel Guillen — have suggested it is.

Guillen tweeted Friday: “Burning down housing doesn’t help make #Oak housing more affordable. It only speeds up displacement of existing residents.”

And hey, there’s this: Arson is a crime. Arson — for whatever reason — could kill someone. A security guard on site. A firefighter who responds to the scene. A person inside an adjacent building that catches fire.

So if indeed the fires are politically motivated, it’s asinine and naive thinking not just because it’s simply wrong — but because it will accomplish nothing. Developers aren’t going to take off their hard hats and pack up their cement mixers, cranes and scaffolding. No, they’ll still be plotting and digging in Oakland, because there will still be hot property in the city long after the ashes from fires have cooled.

There are forums for opposition. There’s City Hall. There’s the city’s streets.

But it’s not in crime — and especially not in crime that can turn deadly.